We had the pleasure of attending the Carnivale festivities on Isla San Cristobal the day before we left the Galapagos. There was a parade, lots of live bands, some delicious street food and the President of Ecuador was even there!! We were sad to leave the Galapagos because it was such a great experience but the rest of the world is calling and we still have a long way to go. After departing the Galapagos we returned to the Guayaquil on Ecuador's mainland. We had a full day to kill between arriving in Guayaquil and leaving for Peru on a long distance bus, so we decided to take in a few sights. We walked a solid 40 minutes from our hostel to the Malecon and spent a good part of the day strolling along Guayaquil's massive boardwalk along the Rio Guayas. An absolutely beautiful area, the Malecon has something for everyone. There are hundreds of small shops selling everything you can imagine from knick-knacks and trinkets to doo-dads and whats-its. The views across the Rio Guayas are also very stunning and for a small price one can hop on a river boat gambling trip for a couple hours to see the city. However, we prefer to keep those types of events in international waters where anything goes and the sky is the limit. The next day we jumped on our international Cruz Del Sur bus at 2:00pm to arrive in Huanchaco, Peru the next morning at 7:00am. We were really excited as the Cruz Del Sur bus was the top of the line with huge reclining leather chairs, food on board, and a bathroom all the makings for a comfy ride! We were a bit nervous for the Tumbes border crossing as we had heard stories about robberies; however, we were completely safe and sound and back on the bus in no time heading towards Huanchaco. After about 40 minutes from the border the bus backed into a compound in Tumbes, Peru where we saw two other Cruz Del Sur buses. The bus driver then came on over the loud speaker and told the bus in Spanish (so we didn't have a clue what was going on) that due to fishermen protesting and blockading the main highway we were spending the night in the bus compound until the next morning when they thought the road blockage would be over. Luckily we met some really nice people on the bus who translated for us. Unfortunately the next morning the road wasn't open so their next idea was to drive the bus we were on to the protest, where we'd all get out and walk across the protest lines then on the other side we'd be picked up by another Cruz Del sur bus. Their grand idea was to leave here at 11AM the NEXT morning (at this point we realized we would be spending more than an entire day in the bus terminal) and to walk across the picket lines. When we first agreed to this "plan" we were told the walk was approximately 200m, then a couple of hours later we heard it was 2 km, then 5km, and finally right before we were going to bed 12km. We thought it was nuts (and somewhat dangerous as 3 people were robbed walking it the day before) that everyone had agreed to a 12km walk carrying our large bags. What really blew our minds, was that everyone from South America was OK with it! They obviously haven't done any long distance wilderness hiking before, otherwise they would have thought twice about agreeing to walk 12km in blistering heat carrying large bags. Unfortunately we were more or less stuck. We were told by many people that Tumbes is very dangerous (being a border town) and we shouldn't walk around so going to find a hotel was not really an option unless we could walk with a local. As you can imagine sleeping is the bus for 2 nights was was difficult... we had no air conditioning (the driver left with the keys), people were snoring and knowing we would have to walk 12 km in that area scared us. When we were woken up at 5:00am by the bus being turned on (AH! finally some air) we were told the road had been cleared and we were finally leaving the compound, we were very relived. After spending two nights in the Tumbes bus compound we were very excited for the 10 hours of actual driving to arrive in Trujillo where we met our Spanish teacher and were taken to our homestay in Huanchaco. All in all our 17 hour bus ride turned into 53 hours. It wasn't too bad as we met some really nice people and will always remember our time in the Tumbes bus compound :) Here's a few more pictures to keep you entertained...
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February 10th 2012 - We got up, packed and left for our boat trip on the New Flamingo. After reading some reviews online about the boat we had already paid for we were a little apprehensive. The reviews had stated that the boat was old, dirty, and too hot to sleep. In order to meet the boat we had to make our way back to Baltra airport which was on another island, so we had to take a taxi to the bus station a local bus to a ferry and an airport shuttle from the ferry to the airport. On the move from the hostel to the airport we met two other couples travelling to the New Flamingo. We were so happy to see that they were friendly, excited and energetic. Our guide met us and escorted us back on the same airport shuttle to a different harbour where we jumped onto the Panga (a small boat that tenders passengers between the boat and land at the different destinations). Our first impressions of the boat were that was older but very clean, had nice staff and tiny rooms! We were happy to see that we at least had a private bathroom. Below is a picture of the room. To get an idea of the size we measured it. I (Courtney) could stand with my arms stretched out (so just over 5 ft) and Andrew could stand from my hand to the wall. Then the width was about a narrow single bunk bed plus the width of us standing sideways. Now imagine how “fun” it was moving around with our big bags, just a tad claustrophobic so we spent as little of time in the room as possible which was very easy as we were always busy. After all 10 of us arrived and boarded we were introduced to out naturalist guide Alfonzo, who was very knowledgeable, hilarious (but never knew it) and loves the Galapagos! Every morning Al would come to breakfast and go over our itinerary for the day and give us some little hints as to what we might see. Our daily schedule was waking up at 6:30am, breakfast at 7:00am, wet landing 7:45am which was usually followed by a small hike then a morning snorkeling trip at 9:15am, snack at 10:45am, lunch at 12:00pm, siesta until 2:30pm while we were driving to a new location. Then another snorkelling trip, afternoon wet landing, afternoon snack and dinner at 6:00pm. It was great getting up every day excited to know we were going exploring and snorkelling! The food was great. We were all shocked at how the chef could cook such great meals in such a small place. Here is a list of some of the food. Always fresh fruit at breakfast and lunch, eggs, pancakes, cheese, cold cut meat, soup at lunch, fish, chicken, beef one day, rice, yummy coleslaw, bread pudding and the last night he made us a delicious cake! Our first full day (February 11, 2012) we had a wet landing to a large lava field on the east coast of Santiago Island, created by a volcano eruption only 140 years ago. The flow of lava was about 20 square kilometers in size and ended up connecting 2 islands and merging them into one. Some of the lava field was actually floating on the ocean but you would never know since the ground was very stable. The trail we followed was marked out by the national park authority and Alfonso urged us to stay within 20 meters of it since the ground was known to be stable. He had plenty of stories of gringos breaking through and falling into the underwater caves when they strayed away from the path. Our hike on the lava flow took us around one of the already existing islands, where the contrast of the dark copper coloured soil to the jet black lava really put things into perspective. It was cool to see how in just a matter of moments, the physical landscape of the earth could be changed and since this flow is so recent it just goes to show us that our planet is constantly evolving, whether we like it or not. Another interesting tidbit about the islands that we learned on this day was its struggle with invasive species. Due to invasive animals that were introduced to the island by early explorers, pirates and whalers, certain native species were eradicated so the national park is trying to remove all invasive species off the island. They have successfully removed goats, dogs, and cows from this particular island. In the past people hunted the goats by sitting in little craters made from the lava. We saw a Galapagos Penguin sitting on the island and were told by Al that they are very awkward on land but very fast in the water, which we saw later when snorkeling. We also saw lots of red crabs, and some very friendly birds. We then went snorkelling for around 1 hour along the shoreline. In the evening we set off on a hike up the large crater on Bartolome Island. Bartolome is considered one of the younger islands in the Galapagos and it has a copper coloured soil much like the area on Santiago Island where we were earlier in the day. From high up on the volcanic crater we had a great view of the lava field and we could really see how vast it was. The following day, February 12th, happened to be the 180th anniversary of when the Galapagos islands became part of Ecuador AND Charles Darwin's birthday! We expected a big day and weren't disappointed! On our morning beach excursion we watched sea turtles surf some pretty big waves and during our morning snorkeling session we watched some Galapagos sharks and tropical fish enjoy their morning outings. Before lunch we visited a spot called Buccaneer's Cove...for obvious reasons. Back in the day when pirates sailed tall ships they would use Buccaneer's cove as a refuge to hide after they ransacked a few vessels. The remainder of our day we spent visiting a sea lion colony and then snorkeling. The snorkeling was awesome yet again. This time we watched a sea lion fishing for octopus. He was only about 3 feet away from us swimming around So this blog post is long enough already so we'll wrap it up now.
We departed Banos on an early bus to Guayaquil where we would spend the night before boarding a flight to the Galapagos Islands. The 2 hour flight whipped by and we found ourselves standing in Baltra Island Airport waiting to be formally let onto the island. We decided to spend 2 weeks in the Galapagos for a few reasons. First we wanted ample time to arrange a tour while on the islands so that we could find a good deal and second we wanted to do a bunch of exploring on our own outside of the cruise ship scene. We checked into our hostel in Peurto Ayora and then promptly made our way out the Charles Darwin Research Station where endangered giant tortoises and iguanas are bred. We learned that the Galapagos Islands are fairly new in terms of the earth`s age. The islands range from 4 million to 700,000 years old and its native species are endemic, meaning that many of the species found on these islands are found nowhere else on earth. When whalers arrived in the late 1700`s they began to kill off the giant tortoises to extract their fat and thus put the species at severe risk of extinction. With the influx of development happening on the islands to support the whaling industry many non-native species were brought in to support human activity. Cows, dogs and pigs are prime examples of the species that began to spread and cause damage to the native flora and fauna. Wikipedia`s article on the Galapagos Islands explains everything in detail much better than I could ever dream to, so check it out here. We were amazed to see all the conservational efforts in place in the Galapagos. At the Charles Darwin centre they are trying to restore some of the giant tortoise populations by implementing strict breeding regimes and egg harvesting. We saw new born turtles ranging from teeny tiny babies to the full grown large adults. The centre keeps the turtles until they are approximately 4 years old, old enough to breed and hopefully survive on their own. We also found it very interesting that the scientists can regulate the sexes by incubating the eggs at different temperatures, over 29.5 C the eggs turn to females and under 28.0 C the eggs hatch as males. It’s sad but 3 of the species are now extinct. Lonesome George is quite special as he is the last of his kind and is a very popular reminder to everyone visiting or living on the islands just how fragile the ecosystems are. After the centre visit we headed to the beach closet to town. We weren’t too impressed with the beach or waterfront as it was close to the harbour. However, there were giant marine iguanas crabs covering the rocks. It was amazing being able to get within 2 feet of them without them scurrying away. We also saw bright red crabs and some very unique birds. On our second day on the island we headed to Tortuga bay, one the the highly recommended places to visit on Santa Cruz Island. From our hotel we walked down a side road to the entrance of Tortuga bay, a set of stairs with a large gate connecting the road to the other side of a canon. Visitors must register when going through as it is one of the 70 visitor sites the government regulates for conservation. After passing through the gate it is a 2.5 km walk to the beach. Tortuga bay is one of the nicest beaches I've (Courtney) have ever been to. The sand was pristine, white, and as soft as baby powder (2nd best beach for Andrew, Kinsmen being the first). The first beach had huge breaking waves and was not recommended for swimming but was full with surfers. We were told to continue down the beach another 2 km and turn to the right to a quieter inlet where the water is flat and clear. There were signs along the sides that told us that the mangroves are used by the turtles and other wildlife and to not enter but to walk along the beach. We ignored all the sinage and we are sending all the blog subscribers giant tortoise eggs as an early valentines gift. All along the beach there were huge marine iguanas, there were so many and oddly not shy as you can see below! Our third day was was action packed! We got up around 5:30am and got ready for a full day snorkeling tour. We met our group and headed to the boat. It was a 2 hour boat ride to our first spot, which was in the middle of two huge rocks off the Cristobal Island. The guide was a really nice young local who spoke Spanish and English. We would laugh because he would yell out "ok Snorkelers come and get ready... please lets be pronto". After he got us together he quickly explained the rules. 1. To stay in a group 2. To not touch anything. 3. Keep calm and not kick too much because... we'll be swimming with sharks!! At this point I felt a wee bit queasy. I (Courtney) almost hurled due to the swaying of the boat, the smell of fish mixed with fuel and the thought of swimming in shark infested waters. We all jumped into the water with our gear on and got into a small group. Once we put on our masks and looked down we were amazed to see tons of different fish species then out of nowhere the sharks began swimming up from deep below. At one point someone counted over 25 small white tipped Galapagos sharks. It was somewhat scary as a few of the sharks started swimming closer to the surface. We quickly realized they were just as curious as we were. Then we heard our guide yelling "Tortuga Hola Snorkelers Turtles" and looked to see huge sea turtles just a couple of meters away. They were so graceful in the water moving with the currents usually in pairs. While we swam between the huge rocks we saw countless small sharks, manta rays, a eagle ray (which is like a manta ray but HUGE!), sea turtles, fish all while being stung by jelly fish. At our second pass between the rocks we were swimming and I looked down to see a large dark shadow and could see it was a huge hammerhead shark! I was so excited I poped my head out of the water and yelled for Andrew to make sure he saw it as well. We were both amazed to be swimming a few meters away from such large and powerful sea creatures. We then got to snorkel at two other spots throughout the day. At those spots we got to swim right beside sea lions who were playing with their young. One slid off a rock and followed us along the shoreline while looking right at us. It was so exciting!! We rolled into Puerto Moreno on Isla San Cristobal for lunch where we were greeted by hundreds of sea lions lounging all over the beach, pier and boardwalk. The were all lazing around in the sun and would get quite upset if you disturbed their slumber. Just ask Courtney, who tried to challenge a sealion who claimed a small gazebo as his castle. He stood his ground and chased her away. We had the standard almuerza (Ecuadorian Lunch) at nice little restaurant just a block from the pier. It was pretty standard from what we have been eating lately except that they brought popcorn to put into the soup. Andrew ate all his popcorn before his soup was brought to the table. After lunch we watched the sea lions play in the surf for a bit then jumped back on the boat for our last snorkel of the day. For this one we headed out to a small remote island called Santa Fe. It started to rain just before we arrived and the ocean was nice and warm when we hopped in. We saw a lot of big tropical fish, and some with really vibrant colours. A few playful sea lions also swam along with our group keeping us company as we watched schools of fish move with the current. We arrived back in Puerto Ayora at about 6PM after about a 12 hour day! And what a day it was!! Tomorrow we're heading out on the New Flamingo for a 5 day cruise around Isla Santiago and to celebrate we thought we would list all of the popular seafaring terms we could think of. Feel free to add the ones we missed!
-Arrr matey! -Man overboard! -Walk the plank! -Shiver me timbers! -Ahoy! -Aye Aye Captain! -Land lubber -Prepare to be boarded! -Booty We had met some really interesting people in the hostel and enjoyed listening to their travelling stories so we decided to stay a few more nights (6 in total). Even though it was clouded over on Friday morning Andrew and I headed out on a 3 hour hike in the hillside behind our hostel. The hike started out with a very steep climb up a set of stairs leading to a statue of the Virgin Mary where people in Banos go to pray. Let me tell you… they must really feel her presence because wow what a climb! The trail then continued up and across the mountain range towards Run Tun overlooking the city. We climbed above the clouds so there wasn’t much for views but it was really fun walking into what we were calling the abyss. Cloudy moist air filled the trail leaving us with minimal visibility at points! At one point we ran into a family who couldn’t move further down the trail because horses were blocking their way, with a couple of kisses the horses moved and we continued on. The trail was mostly well beaten except for one section where the bush had grown over the top giving it a tunnel feel. It was great slipping down the hills while hearing the bugs and cows. After approximately 2.5 hours of hiking up or slipping down the mud the trail opened to the point we had climbed a few days earlier. By now the clouds had lifted a bit so we had another great view of the city. Andrew and I made nachos for dinner and a few drinks then headed to the bar district. We felt safe as we were going with a guy from Chile and a couple who could speak Spanish. The bar scene in Banos is pretty great. It was really busy, people were dancing and the music was booming. We sat in this nice outdoor covered area with a huge bon fire in the center where all the other gringo’s hung out while the locals danced inside. We each had a Caipirinha and chatted away the night. Saturday we did laundry (Yay clean clothes), bought our bus ticket to Guayaquil (7 hours from Banos), and our tickets to the Galapagos (So exciting). We also went on a little walk to the Banos Zoo. It was quite different from anything I’ve seen in Canada. The Zoo was scattered on the side of a pretty steep hill. The Jaguars closure shocked us, it had a tall fence on the front side then a brick wall on the far side with relatively small side walls and no roof. He could have jumped out easily if he wanted so we didn’t linger long enough to become a meal (I guess he was too busy chewing on a bone, perhaps from the last zoo-goer he ate). The animals were sad looking like any other zoo but the setting was pretty. The walk to and around the zoo was beautiful, large hills to our sides with a river washing quickly through down below. Later on that evening we had a big ol’ fashioned South American BBQ with a bunch of our hostel buddies. We had steaks, pork ribs, chicken thighs, potato salad, green peppers on the BBQ with an egg cracked in them, zucchini, damper (an aussy bread), peach daquiries and plenty of tall Pilseners. We ate and drank as we cooked and everyone had a little bit of everything. It was an absolute blast! Speaking of blasts, while we were BBQing we were shocked when the neighboring volcano, Tungurahua, let out a massive belch! It shook the ground and left everyone speechless and staring at one another. Luckily the ash did not fall on Banos but we weren’t lucky enough to see the glow of lava on horizon that is characteristically associated with these releases of pressure. The evening lasted late and we had to catch a 6am bus the next day to Guayaquil, our staging point for the Galapagos Islands!
We left Otavalo en route to Banos, a small tourist town known for it’s thermal baths, amazon access, downhill mountain biking, trekking trails and spas! We took a bus from Otavalo to Quito (2 hrs) then jumped on a second bus that would take us across the city from the north to the south bus terminal. A very friendly young Ecuadorian man gave us some advice and told us it would take us an hour and that it should only cost $1. The south terminal (Quitumbe) was brand new and very well laid out; it actually felt more like an airport rather than bus terminal. After finding our way through the terminal we got onto a third bus that took us from Quito to Banos (3.5 hrs) for a cost of $3.50. The last bus ride seemed to take forever as we kept having to stop to pick up and drop off people along the way. The weather was miserable so some of the sights that we might have seen along that route (like the Cotopaxi Volcano) were hidden from view by thick rain clouds. We finally arrived in Banos at around 5:00pm. Banos is a great little town, set deep in a valley surrounded by mountains and volcanoes of the Andes. We went out for a great dinner at a neat restaurant called Café Hood. I was really happy as it had vegetarian food, a great atmosphere, and wine! Andrew also enjoyed his Enchiladas and cerveza! We had originally planned to visit the hot baths early in the morning but after waking up and seeing low clouds and drizzle we decided to head out and track down some groceries. Eating out every meal gets sort of old and expensive so we were really happy to have a hostel with a kitchen. We went to the market and bought some fruit and veggies, then headed across the street to the supermarket. We also found a bakery and bought a loaf of Freshly baked bread for 50 cents then headed to a chocolate and coffee store and bought freshly ground coffee. Finally… we could start making our own coffee using this neat MSR filter we bought from MEC. We made eggs and toast and lots of coffee Yay!!!!! Later on in the day, once our breakfast had digested, we headed up out of the town on a little hiking route that took us to a lookout called Bellavista. When we emerged from the trail we were blown away by the view of the valley and town of Banos that was laid out before us. We could see that the town has reached its physical limit since it doesn’t have any space left to sprawl out. We’ve also learned that Banos is at the mercy of the neighboring Volcano Tungurahua, which in 1999 erupted and wiped out several small settlements on its direct slopes. Banos was spared that year. That night we had dinner with two guys who were also staying at our hostel, Sam and Visentay. Sam has spent many years in south America travelling and living and he experienced Tungurahua’s power firsthand in 2009 when large eruptions started to occur again. He said the volcanos eruptions would literally shake his hostel in the middle of the night. The next day we woke up and got off to a nice and slow start. The weather was rainy so we didn’t rush anywhere (plus travelling is real tiring hehe). After a delicious hearty breakfast of eggs, toast, yogurt, coffee and a fresh fruit smoothie we spent some time listening to the two parrots that live at our hostel squawk ‘Hola!’ to passersby. We walked to one edge of the town to check out a really nice waterfall and then headed to the opposite side of town to check out the view. When we arrived back at our hostel, the elderly man who manages the place was trying to get his parrots into their cages for the night. His trick was to slowly sneak up on them while saying, “parakeeta, parakeeta, parakeeta,” and he would use a long stick to force them off their branch in the tree. Once they were basically falling off the tree branch they would be forced to grab his stick and he would bring them down to their cages. Today we got up and went to the hot springs which was a 35 minute walk from town. It was really nice, there was a good selection of pools to choose from. We started at the coldest and worked our way to a hot bath. One local lady in the baths with us was very entertaining, she was between 60-70 yrs old and did little flips in the water and handstands. Everyone was very friendly and laughed when the Gringo's tried to go from the hottest bath into the coldest. :) On our way home we went through a short cut and got to cross this stream. The crossing looks scarier than it was but this is what is normal for the locals to cross (as we know because we followed one). For the rest of the day we lounged around watching and listening to the Parrots then made a nacho dinner and had some drinks with other travelers in the hostel. Four of us were chatting late into the night and noticed someone peeking through the window...
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